Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on November 14, 2013 by Dita Ribner Cooper
During a hike outside of Jerusalem on our first Pardes shabbaton I found myself walking behind two people that had just met. Like all first meetings go, they each introduced themselves, asked where the other was from, and where the other person was living during his/her year in Pardes. It was the beginning of what Continue Reading »
Posted on July 26, 2013 by Michal Kohane
In Pirkei Avot (5:25) we find, “turn her, turn her, everything is in her” – הפוך בה, הפוך בה, הכל בה. We knew this theory before coming to Pardes, but feeling it on an almost daily basis for the last three weeks has been a whole different story. Perhaps there is no better place to Continue Reading »
Posted on April 13, 2013 by Naomi Bilmes
From my blog: I have Haredi cousins. I did not know this until last Friday night, enjoying couch-conversation with one of said cousins before Shabbat dinner. “So what do people in this neighborhood call themselves?” I asked, wondering (after seeing all the black hats and streimels) which sect of Ultra-Orthodoxy I had resigned myself to Continue Reading »
Posted on February 10, 2013 by Ma'ayan Dyer
From my blog: With the tenth of February just around the corner, it’s hard to believe that I’ve been in Israel for a month already. I have big plans for my time abroad, and while I’ve mostly been happily consumed with Jewish studies at Pardes, I feel like there’s still just so much for me Continue Reading »
Posted on January 5, 2013 by Annie Matan Gilbert
From my blog: It seems silly to me now, but I have resisted writing a blog because I couldn’t fathom writing prose with enough frequency to make it viable and I doubted I had anything of use to say. And then… In the past couple of weeks, I wrote some poems. And posted them. And Continue Reading »
Posted on December 21, 2012 by The Director of Digital Media
Parshat VaYigash has for a long time been a parsha that I have a special connection with. Not only is it my bar mitzvah parsha (20 years ago this year), but it was also the parsha the week following my wedding. After our wedding in Los Angeles, Aviva and I, who had met in Jerusalem Continue Reading »
Posted on December 13, 2012 by The Director of Digital Media
This week, Rabbi Michael Hattin discusses Parashat MiKetz. dfs Shabbat Shalom!
Posted on November 30, 2012 by The Director of Digital Media
While this week’s parsha, VaYishlach, includes some of our tradition’s high-points (Jacob struggles with an angel and prevails! Jacob’s name is changed to Israel and he is blessed with land and progeny!) as well as some of its low-points (the rape of Dinah; Reuben sleeping with his father’s handmaid, Bilhah), my favorite verse in VaYishlach Continue Reading »
Posted on October 25, 2012 by Annie Matan Gilbert
I have been prompted twice this year so far to share these poems – once inspired by Rav Landes Shabbat Shuva Shiur and then after I read them at Salon Pardes. I wrote these as part of my final project for an Aleph Rabbinical School class exploring the concept of tzimtzum in Jewish texts. My Continue Reading »
Posted on October 17, 2012 by David Bogomolny
Bruce Shaffer was raised in an assimilation-bent household in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Northwest Detroit, fairly typical of what he saw around him. His curiosity for Jewish learning and Jewish text was seeded at his Hebrew school. There was no core of professional Jewish faculty – Bruce’s teachers were mostly Yiddish-speaking European refugees, and Continue Reading »